It's a small crime and I've got no excuse

Taken from the lovely persons at numberverse who are brilliant, bee tee dubs.

1. Look at the journal list. (It should in theory be complete. I'm fairly sure.)2. Pick a character.3. Either give me a prompt, ask the character a question, have characters chat about stuff, ask meta-ly things, or start a thread. Basically, explore the 'verse and help me explore it too.

Matt and Scout are... complicated, to say the least. There really is no one term to describe their relationship. There are several terms that apply in certain situations--siblingthings, lovers, working partners--but none of those properly capture the complexities--or indeed all the major aspects--of their relationships. To call them one term would ignore the nuances of another, major nuances that greatly affect the balance they so precariously hold. In order to truly grasp the full scope of their relationship, one must look at the small aspects of each possible label and synthesize them.

A great addition to the already complex nature of the relationship are Scout and Matt's separate, individual selves, and the histories that they carry. Scout has been virtually broken beyond all repair by her treatment and as such she has no real grasp on reality, or the way that relationships work. She has no concept of where lines are drawn between platonic and romantic, and responds to every situation differently--she's erratic, violent, and loyal essentially to a fault. On the other hand you have Matt, who has recently had his emotional core ripped out by the ending of a relationship and the death of his girlfriend. This means that not only is he craving a replacement for the romantic person in his life, he also feels like he has nothing left and therefore nothing to lose--and ties to no one. He has one real goal and one goal only--find a Rakshasa [killing demon] so he can get his fix and maybe have some sex on the side. [Note: in this verse, most Raks have an extremely high sex drive. Scout is the exception because she has the brain function of a five year old.] With neither of them standing on the same ground in the beginning, the relationship had no stable base or a label that would fit it perfectly.

The basis of their relationship, no doubt, is that of working partners, a sort of interdependence with codependent tendencies that appear as time wears on. Matt needs a Rak to stick with him as his own personal killing machine to fuel his habit, and Scout needs a place to stay that is off the streets and out of the path of roving archangels. They enable each other--Scout gets to kill as often as she wants, and Matt gets to experience as much pain as he wants. Scout is protected from archangels and the law, and Matt is protected from mishaps on the street while he is high. It is weirdly beneficial to them both, and creates a foundation for the rest of their relationship.

It is difficult to be in constant contact with someone--living together, eating together, spending essentially every moment together--and not grow closer than simply working partners. Since Scout has the brain function of a three to five year old, a relationship that meets full criteria of 'romantic' isn't exactly possible, and with her five year old brain she sees things in a sense of family--a family she never had. Matt at first resists her affections (as every good brotherthing should) but after Scout saves his life, he comes around and begins to slowly develop feelings for her--purely platonic on both their parts. They share a mattress because there is no place for two people to sleep in the apartment, and Matt gets irrationally angry every time people insinuate they are in a romantic relationship. If one wanted to twist it a little bit, one could compare it to a kind of 'dog and his master' relationship--Scout is the dog and Matt is the master. Scout as an endless amount of love and loyalty towards Matt, and Matt appreciates the love so he feels obligated to protect and provide for her. This is undoubtedly the most dominant role in their relationship, though it is influenced by the other roles.

The most complex, convoluted and confusing part of Matt and Scout's relationship dynamic is undoubtedly their sex life. It should be noted that the sex does not occur often enough to indicate an intimate romantic relationship, nor does either view the other as a mere fuckbuddy--the emotional aspect runs deeper than that. Also complicating the situation is the idea of questionable consent. Scout, as previously mentioned, has the mental capacity of a toddler. She cannot legally give consent, despite being of consenting age, because she does not understand the concept of consent--Matt never asked, and she made no motion to stop him because it was what he wanted. She has no real interest in sex as a pursuit, and while their sexual encounters were never traumatic, Scout does not initiate them or particularly want them, beyond a physical tool to make Matt happy. Matt, on the other hand, is in it only for the physical reminder of the extremely powerful romantic relationship he once had--Scout fulfills the working role Katya (Matt's dead girlfriend) used to, so in Matt's mind the other, sexual part of the relationship is his for the taking. They tend to not even speak while they are doing it, nor do they talk about it in any other context--in fact, as previously mentioned, Matt becomes irrationally angry when it is implied that he is taking sexual advantage of her--not that he has deluded himself into thinking she likes it, just that he does not believe he is taking advantage of her. He does not think much about the role she plays in their sexual lives at all, just that the sex they have together is an escape from the other things in his life: his struggle with his addiction, the pain he feels from the loss of his girlfriend, etc. He attaches no real emotional value to it, and since Scout does not understand it, neither does she.

All these factors make for a very complex, occasionally unstable relationship that endures only because of the loyalty each feels to the other. The question of course is how deep that loyalty runs--how far can each be pushed until they give the other up? Matt clearly has investments in other relationships, while Scout has nothing in her life except this relationship--one that in certain lights could be construed as manipulative or even abusive. It could be called a kind of miracle that they manage to make it work as well as they do, or perhaps it is a reflection of who they are: broken relationships work between broken people. Either way, their relationship makes for fascinating observation and brings insight into various dimensions of interpersonal relationships.